Planning under way for new level of healthcare
District health boards are planning for ‘‘the careful expansion of services’’ when New Zealand moves to alert level 2, but the specifics are still to be determined.
An update was given yesterday on what Kiwis can expect once the country moves to alert level 2 with decisions on healthcare services to be made over the coming days.
Director-general of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield acknowledged that a backlog exists in the country’s health services that needed to be cleared. ‘‘Under alert level 3, elective surgery is already winding up to the highest level we can while environment Bloomfield.
The country remains in alert level 3, with Cabinet expected to meet on Monday to decide whether the country is ready to move to level 2 and when this will happen. Kiwis will likely have 48 hours notice before level 2 comes in.
Bloomfield said healthcare services would be subject to the same hygiene protocols as other settings, such as ensuring physical distancing, intensive cleaning, and reducing physical contact where possible.
The director of provider services for Capital and Coast and Hutt Valley District Health Boards (DHBs), Joy Farley, said keeping safe,’’ the said as the Ministry of Health had not yet issued guidelines to boards on providing services under level 2, it was too early to say what changes would be implemented. ‘‘The two DHBs are, however, undertaking some preliminary planning ahead of a shift to alert level 2,’’ said Farley. ‘‘Under alert level 3, we have slightly increased the level of planned surgery being undertaken. Our preliminary planning includes considering whether we can further increase planned surgery, how outpatient appointments will be conducted, what — if any — changes can be made to delivery of services, and whether our visitor policy may change.’’ Bloomfield said further guidance on visitor restrictions at level 2 will be available at a later stage, but ‘‘the situation won’t be back to normal’’.
Dr Sue Nightingale, incident controller at Canterbury DHB, said changes to policies such as restrictions on hospital visitors will be guided by the Ministry of Health’s national guidelines and will be considered once an announcement has been made by the Government.
Nightingale said it is expected that healthcare services will be expanded under level 2.
She said Canterbury DHB plans to be at 85 per cent of the pre-Covid-19 surgery volumes within the next four weeks.
She said the number of outpatient appointments is expected to increase when the country shifts down an alert level.
A pay cut of 30 per cent for 900 jet pilots has been agreed between their union and Air New Zealand, while 300 pilots will be made redundant.
The New Zealand Airline Pilots Association (NZALPA) came to an agreement with the airline yesterday after weeks of negotiating the cuts required to address the airline industry’s ‘‘uncertain path to recovery’’.
The airline’s domestic and international schedules were slashed as demand collapsed, as the Covid-19 pandemic brought the industry to its knees.
Association president Andrew Ridling said it negotiated to save as many jobs as possible, and to ‘‘ensure a fair process for getting other pilots back in the air once the recovery gets under way’’.
Those 900 pilots that stay on the payroll will take a 30 per cent pay cut for the next nine months. They will continue to fly Air New Zealand’s jet aircraft on both domestic and international flights.
‘‘Sadly, almost 300 of about 1200 of our Air New Zealand jet pilot members are being made redundant this week (some taking voluntary redundancy) or are accepting early retirement.
‘‘Some of those pilots will choose to be furloughed, which is effectively leave without pay for the time being,’’ Ridling said.
Pilots that had been made redundant or furloughed would be the first to be called back when the sector recovered, he said.
Furlough could be as long as 10 years in some cases, he said.
Pilots could still choose to take redundancy at any time or find work elsewhere.
Air New Zealand recognised the need to retain pilots so it could ‘‘turn the tap on again quickly’’, when demand increases again and another group of pilots that could be brought back in as needed. ‘‘The furlough provision is a major achievement for our members,’’ he said.
Ridling said it achieved the best possible outcome under the circumstances and said the association fought to ensure a ‘‘clear path’’ back to work at the airline for its members, despite not being able to save every job.